Weekly tech roundup from the COTI Research and Development team

During the last weeks, the COTI development team has been hard at work on the technical goals for our roadmap and upcoming release of our AlphaNet.

• Our innovative Proof of Work (PoW) package is coming along nicely, and we are working on implementing the first version which consists of:

+ Implementing the hashing algorithms
Currently all 16 algorithms have already been implemented. Any new PoW object is an object representing a specific algorithm ordering. Any data hashed through this object is hashed according to the object’s internal algorithm ordering set at instantiation. Each nibble of the input `algorithmOrder` is mapped with 1 of 16 cryptohash 512 bit algorithms, and internally saved and used as the algorithm ordering for hashing and verification.

+ Implementing Trust Score and normalizing it with PoW
We are implementing the PoW in a way that Trust Scores affect the time spent working. The idea is to find a valid nonce for each algorithm (input of each algo also being an output of a previous alg). Nonces are collected along the way, and the full list of nonces are used to validate the transaction. In this way, using the Trust Score to affect the number of algorithms being run will impact the overall time spent working.

• We finalized our ITSA Server and added the implementation as part of our on-boarding process and integrated it with our CPS service.
• We are working on updating our whitepaper. A new version will be available soon and will include our major advancements, as well as many aspects which were not detailed in the previous version. This includes the arbitration service, PoW, Trust Score Init/Update algorithms etc.
• Our research team continued work on node discovery, monitoring and exploring processes to validate nodes that do not follow rules as defined by the COTI network. For example, not choosing a random address from the address book or randomizing interactions with other nodes.
• Our development team moved forward with the implementation of COTI network components based on three basic building blocks that create, approve and propagate transactions between accounts: The COTI Wallet, the Full Node and the DSP Node. In addition, major advancements were achieved in the Full Node and DSP node synchronization protocol. In this process, each Full Node is tasked with being synchronized when receiving new connections from wallets and when adding new transactions to the DAG. A Full Node is considered synchronized if it holds the hash of the last transaction approved by the majority of the DSP Nodes.

Meet the COTI technology team

The COTI community is growing rapidly. If you have any questions, you are welcome to get in touch with us on Telegram or via email. We will be providing further updates in the near future.